For anyone who hasn't been paying attention, the box art for BioShock Infinite has been a hot topic as of late. Mostly the reasoning behing it, which according to creator Ken Levine, is a means to target the "frat boys" demographic.
Unfortunately, you can see plenty of other examples that follow this mentality, but there's one game that won't be playing along: Naughty Dog's The Last of US.
In an interview with VG24/7, the topic of box art came up, and an interesting revelation was disclosed by Ashley Johnson, the actress who portrays Ellie:
"I feel like they don’t put women on the covers because they’re afraid that it won’t sell. It’s all gamers really know – and I don’t want to be sexist by any means – but I get the feeling, generally, that they think game’s won’t sell as well with a woman on the cover, compared to some badass dude on the front."
Neil Druckmann, the game's creative director, adds:
"I agree with what Ashley said… I believe there’s a misconception that if you put a girl or a woman on the cover, the game will sell less. I know I’ve been in discussions where we’ve been asked to push Ellie to the back and everyone at Naughty Dog just flat-out refused."
Naughty Dog should be applauded for sticking to their guns, though one fears the possibility of sales being hurt by such a noble stance. Unfortunately, numbers do not lie, and there are stats that does show that many gamers will not touch a game if there is a female on the cover. Yes, even in the year 2012.
